Auto-enrolment

The Pension Regulator (TPR) shows its teeth... again!

The accountant of a London cafe has been ordered to pay £6,857.50 after he
admitted falsely claiming to The Pensions Regulator (TPR) that staff had
been enrolled into pensions.

It is the first time that TPR has prosecuted a third party, working on
behalf of an employer, for this offence.

Gran Caffe Londra in Knightsbridge, run by Primadell Ltd, missed its
deadline to automatically enrol staff into a workplace pension in October
2015.

TPR launched an investigation and arranged an inspection, but cancelled it
when Hashmukh Shah, 63, declared that the company had met its duties.
However TPR later discovered that the declaration was false, no staff had
been enrolled into a pension scheme and no contributions had been paid.

When interviewed by TPR, Shah, of Richmond, Surrey, admitted purposely
misleading the regulator prevented an inspection of the business which
would have uncovered the employer’s failure to automatically enrol its
staff.

On 15 August Shah pleaded guilty at Brighton Magistrates’ Court to
knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to TPR.
Deliberately providing false information to TPR about compliance with
automatic enrolment duties is an offence under section 80 of the Pensions
Act 2004.

On 1 November 2018, Shah appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court where he
was fined £3,937.50 and ordered to pay £2,800 in costs and a £120 victim
surcharge.

District Judge Teresa Szagun said: “In firefighting the financial crisis of
the company, Mr Shah in fact chose to ignore the individuals who actually,
as the casual workforce, were probably the least well off. The false
information he provided was deliberate and with the knowledge of the risks
that involved, including the potential harm it could cause.”

She added that Shah was “remorseful and mortified about the error” he had
made.

TPR’s Director of Automatic Enrolment, Darren Ryder, said: “This case sends
a clear warning to accountants and advisers tasked with completing an
employers’ automatic enrolment duties - providing TPR with false or
misleading information may land you with a criminal conviction and a fine.
We take very seriously our role to ensure workers get the pensions they
deserve and are entitled to by law. We do not look kindly on people whose
deception gets in the way of our work.”

Gran Caffe Londra eventually became compliant in March 2018 and the company
has backdated pension contributions for its staff.

Brunsdon Employee Benefits Ltd. specialises in complete end-to-end
auto-enrolment solutions, including outsourced administration and
regulatory compliance. Please contact us if you need help or advice.

Please note that this article does not constitute specific advice. The
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not regulate some elements of
Automatic Enrolment. Brunsdon is not responsible for the content of
third party web sites.